China launches nine more Guowang satellites

9:24 am

At almost the same time that SpaceX was doing two launches last night from opposite coasts, China was launching another nine satellites for its Guowang (Satnet) constellation, its Long March 12 rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

Though China’s state run press made no mention of the number of satellites in the payload, all previous Long March 12 launches for this constellation have carried nine satellites. With this launch, the constellation now has about 193 satellites in orbit, out of a planned constellation of 13,000. The goal this year is to launch 310, followed by 900 in ’27, and 3,600 each year thereafter.

99 SpaceX
53 China
11 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
10 Russia

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 99 to 90.

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SpaceX launches twice on opposite coasts

9:00 pm

SpaceX today completed two launches from opposite coasts, with both launches taking place at almost the same time.

First SpaceX launched eight Globalstar telecommunications satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force station in Florida. The two fairings halves were both reused, but the announcer only stated that one has completed its 8th flight. The first stage (B1090) completed its 14th flight (42 days after its previous mission), landing back at SpaceX’s landing zone at Cape Canaveral.

Then, only about 45 minutes later it placed a classified payload into orbit for the Space Force, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The two fairing halves completed their 27th and 29th flights respectively. The first stage (B1088), completed its 18th flight (48 days after its previous mission), landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

99 SpaceX
52 China
11 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
10 Russia

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 99 to 89.

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Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

Ukrainian missiles hit Russia’s only Soyuz-2 rocket factory

9:48 am

Building 106A is the factory where Soyuz-2 rockets are manufactured
Click for source.

Using its Flamingo missiles, the Ukraine last night successfully damaged and possibly destroyed Russia’s factory where it builds the Soyuz-2 rockets, located in the city of Samara about 550 miles northeast of the Ukrainian border.

The image to the right shows the impact point, Building 106A of the the Progress Rocket Space Centre in Samara, which is where the Soyuz-2 and the upgraded not-yet-operational Soyuz-5 rockets are manufactured. Local reports also say Building 106B was damaged, which the company uses to integrate satellites [mostly military] to the rockets for shipment.

It appears this factory is a single-point failure. It is the only one in Russia that manufactures these rockets, used to launch Soyuz manned capsules and Progress freighters to ISS as well as military satellites and Russia’s new Rassvet constellation, aimed at providing it is own Starlink equivalent. If damaged badly, it means Russia’s ability to do any of these things is seriously limited, at least for awhile. It has Soyuz-2 rockets in stock, but only so many. And even if it gets the building rebuilt, the Ukraine has now demonstrated it knows where it is, and has the ability to hit it again.

The Ukraine considers Rassvet a military threat, as it will give Russia’s military high quality communications within the areas it has invaded, comparable (though likely inferior) to Starlink. In this context, the Ukraine has already used drones to threaten Rassvet launches at the Plesetsk spaceport in northwest Russia, forcing Russia to hide launch dates and even delay launches.

This attack illustrates Russia’s increasing vulnerability to Ukrainian drones and missiles, and signals the growing escalation of the war into Russia. Worse, Russia has a limited ability to respond, and either it gets Putin to end the war (very unlikely), removes him from power, or it does what Putin himself has hinted, use nuclear weapons against the Ukraine. The latter action would be incredibly stupid and counter productive, but then, everything about this Russian invasion of the Ukraine has been incredibly stupid and counter productive. We would be foolish to expect better from Putin now.

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Conscious Choice cover

Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!

From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.

 
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.  
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.

 

“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.

 

All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.

August 14, 2026 Quick space links

2:38 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

Note: X now requires log in to view videos with sound. You can get around this by clicking on the three dots at the top right to get the embed code. Ask for the code for an “embedded video.” The video will then be available for watching with sound.

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Leaving Earth cover

Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.

If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.

 
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke

Floating flakes on the flanks of Mount Sharp on Mars

9:47 am

Floating flakes on Mars
Click for full resolution image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced to post here, was taken on August 9, 2026 by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the rover Curiosity.

This camera, designed to take close-ups like this of objects on the ground, is located at the end of Curiosity’s robot arm. According to the science team, when this picture was taken, the camera was approximately eight inches away, making these flakes only inches across and one to three inches long.

Such delicate features are impossible on the surface of the Earth, because rain and wind will destroy them. We do find them inside caves, where the environment is more benign, but even there such things are rare and when found are considered special and unique.
» Read more

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Elon Musk’s private jet visits south Louisiana

8:55 am

Pecan Island SpaceX facility?
Pecan Island SpaceX facility?

It appears Elon Musk’s private jet landed in south Louisiana at Lafayette Regional Airport early this week, along with another larger plane also believed to be linked to SpaceX operations.

Both planes arrived on August 10, 2026 and left later that day. Their appearance fueled more speculation that SpaceX is going to purchase a 130K acre plot of land near the unincorporated village of Pecan Island for its space and AI operations. At the moment however no one from the state government or the company has commented. The state legislature however in May passed two laws benefiting “aerospace flight entities”, one giving tax breaks and the other limiting lawfare against them.

My prediction is that we will get an announcement after the comment period ends on August 31, 2026 for the FAA’s new policy to exempt rocket companies from thirteen major environmental laws. At that point the Transportation Secretary will be able to initiate that policy, and SpaceX will be free to announce the purchase.

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August 13, 2026 Quick space links

3:07 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

4 comments

The whittling away of Mars’ biggest volcanic ash field

12:50 pm

The whittling away of Mars' biggest volcanic ash field
Click for original image.

Overview map

Cool image time! The picture above, cropped to post here, was taken on July 2, 2026 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The science team labels this “layers in a low spot in Aeolis Mensae.” Aeolis Mensae is a high plateau of volcanic ash, part of the vast Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash field on Mars, as shown on the overview map to the right. This image however is inside a 4.5-mile-wide canyon, about 1,500 feet deep, that cuts into Aeolis about 25 miles, as shown by the inset. The white bar indicates the area covered by the picture above, with the elevation drop from the east to the west about 770 feet.

So what are we looking at? My guess is that this canyon was somehow carved out of that plateau of volcanic ash, with the stippled canyon floor a series of exposed layers going downhill to the west. I also suspect the erosion was mostly from wind, considering the delicate nature of each upper layer. The prevailing wind in this region are mostly coming from north, based on global dune patterns. As it is funneled into this canyon it is likely pressed against that eastern wall, where it swirls about and peels off dust to carry it away. The result are the layers and delicate features.

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Texas suspends issuing new grants to internet companies for providing broadband to rural areas

9:54 am

It all stinks! The Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO) has now suspended issuing any new grants under the federal government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program (supposedly designed to encourage rural broadband access) because of objections raised by state legislators from both parties.

The suspension appears linked to “comprehensive performance review” initiated by the state comptroller on August 4, 2026, which in turn appears to have instigated by protests from legislators.

From the Republican side, some lawmakers appeared to question the entire BEAD program, which distributes billions to private internet companies even those companies are making gobs of profits on their own. On the Democratic Party side, the accusations are similar but more irrational, as they centered on the false allegations by one Democrat that the Texas grants favored SpaceX, when in fact it did exactly the opposite.

From both sides, the complaints also appear linked to heavy lobbying from Amazon, which was denied any grant at all. Apparently Amazon wants its share, and has pressured state politicians from both parties to lobby for it.

The whole BEAD program has been corrupt from day one, a perfect example of the worst form of crony capitalism and an utter waste of money. First the Biden administration cancelled a billion dollar grant to SpaceX, claiming it had failed to provide rural internet access as promised, when in fact it was at the time the only company doing so. The cancellation was clearly retaliation for Musk’s public support for Trump. In the case of Texas, its BEAD awards were irrational, giving more to companies failing to do the job than those that were succeeding (such as Starlink). I theorized that strange distribution was expressly the result of political donations, favoring those who put more cash in the right politician’s pocket.

The entire BEAD program should be canceled. Why are taxpayers giving billions to telecommunications companies for work they are already making money on, when we have a multi-trillion dollar debt we cannot afford?

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Space Force buys two more Mira orbital tugs from Impulse Space

9:20 am

Impulse Space's Mira tug
Impulse Space’s Mira tug. Payloads are attached to
the space on top.

The Space Force has extended its contract with the company Impulse Space, buying two more of its Mira orbital tugs to fly its program aimed at developing the capability of flying missions very fast to meet sudden new military actions.

The U.S. Space Force has added $28 million to an existing contract with Impulse Space to provide two more maneuverable spacecraft for tactically responsive space missions, expanding the startup’s role in an effort to give military operators faster options for responding to activity in orbit. The contract modification will fund Victus Salo 2 and Victus Salo 3, which will use Impulse’s Mira spacecraft to host government-provided payloads for missions in low Earth orbit, according to the Space Force.

This raises the contract’s total amount to almost $63 million. The company is already building Miras for two other Space Force missions, dubbed Victus Salo 1 and Victus Surgo, The Salo missions appeared aimed at demonstrating operations in low Earth orbit, while Surgo will do this at geosynchronous orbit. Salo 1 is targeting a 2027 launch date.

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Poland upset by new Starlink restrictions; threatens cutting off funding for Ukrainian Starlink

8:57 am

UPDATE: My guess at the end of this post below was correct. SpaceX responded quickly to Poland’s complaint and restored full service to Poland.

Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski on August 12, 2026 threatened to cut off a $50 million per year fee his nation pays to Starlink — that apparently pays for half of the Starlink terminals in the Ukraine — because Starlink has imposed restrictions on Polish Starlink users it does not require of other European customers.

The foreign minister’s anger follows Starlink’s decision to exclude Poland from a shared European roaming zone that covers more than 30 countries, including Germany, Czechia, Slovakia and Lithuania. Customers within the zone can take their terminals across borders without triggering international-use restrictions. But Polish users will now face extra requirements when traveling.

“Note: Poland is not included in the Europe region above. Accounts registered in Poland are treated as Poland-only for home-country use,” reads Starlink’s current guidance.

Polish Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski also went after Musk, accusing Starlink’s parent company SpaceX of treating Poles as second-class customers and demanding it spell out the regulatory basis for the change.

The articles above all refer to the “Traveling with Starlink” webpage to describe these restrictions, but as of this morning I can find no reference to them on that page. As far as I can tell, Poland is part of the European roaming zone. Either these Polish officials are making hay over nothing, or their protest produced fast results, and SpaceX has already removed these restrictions.

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August 12, 2026 Quick space links

3:06 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

12 comments

State Department invites India to partner in NASA’s Artemis program

8:33 am

India's Bharatiya Antariksh Station as outlined in 2024
India’s Bharatiya Antariksh Station as outlined in 2024.
Click for original image.

According to several stories in the Indian press today, the U.S. State Department yesterday invited India to partner in NASA’s Artemis program.

NASA has formally invited India to join its Moon Base programme, which aims to establish a sustained human presence near the lunar South Pole. The invitation was extended during the ninth meeting of the India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group, which concluded recently in New Delhi.

The US Embassy on Wednesday shared a press release on the meeting, which was attended by US Ambassador to India H E Sergio Gor and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V Narayanan. The meeting discussed existing and future avenues of collaboration between India and the US in the space sector.

India is already a signatory to the Artemis Accords. This new offer I am sure was issued with NASA’s full cooperation. Coming however from the State Department it indicates a global political aspect beyond building a Moon base with international partners. The offer is probably aimed at driving a wedge between India’s increasing space partnership with Russia. In 2025 India agreed to build its Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) in the same inclination as Russia’s proposed station, and work together on cross astronaut visits. This partnership offer is an attempt to pull India away from Russia and toward the U.S.

It carries weight because the U.S. lunar program is real, with solid financing and a healthy space industry. Russia meanwhile is strapped for cash with a space industry that is decaying. It remains extremely doubtful its Russian Orbital Station (ROS) will become operational by 2030, as outlined by Roscosmos in April 2026.

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Firefly wins extension of launch contract with Lockheed Martin

8:18 am

Firefly announced yesterday that Lockheed Martin has awarded it a two year contract extension on a multi-launch contract using its upgraded Alpha-2 rocket.

The extension raises the number of launches to as many as 25, through 2031. The Alpha-2 rocket, first revealed in January 2026, is replacing the first version that completed its last launch in March. It will have extended tanks to give it more launch capacity.

The first launch of Alpha-2 however has been delayed from this summer to before the end of the year, according the company’s CEO during his second quarter earnings call with investors this week. In addition, the company also said it expects the first launch of its larger Eclipse rocket to occur in 2027. This rocket’s first stage will also be used by Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, which has been grounded now for several years because it no longer has access to the Russian engines it used in its first stage. To replace those engines, Northrop Grumman has invested $50 million in Firefly’s Eclipse.

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NASA officials visit Energy Dept facility building nuclear engine for 2028 Mars SkyFall mission

8:01 am

Skyfall concept
SkyFall helicopter deployment. Click for original animation.

NASA officials, including administrator Jared Isaacman, visited the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on August 7, 2026, to review the status of its work building the nuclear electric propulsion engine that will be used to send the agency’s proposed three-helicopter SkyFall mission to Mars in 2028, dubbed overall SR-1 Freedom.

Neither NASA nor DOE have provided many details about the reactor design. Media accompanying the NASA tour of INL were not allowed to take photos or videos in a room that contained information about and hardware related to VALKRE [Versatile Autonomous Lightweight Kilowatt-class Reactor Experiment] and its application for SR-1 Freedom, and some lab officials were reticent to talk about VALKRE.

NASA officials, though, said they were pleased with what they saw of reactor development at INL. “I was super impressed to see the engineering design unit for VALKRE, the condition that was in, the testing they’ve done,” said [Associate Administrator Amit] Kshatriya.

Isaacman said as much after the tour.

It remains to be seen if this government project will happen on time. Unlike the bulk of Isaacman’s redesigned Artemis program, it is not being designed or built by a private company, but by DOE and NASA. And the track record for getting such government space projects built on time and on budget has been abysmal, for decades. The article at the link does a good job summarizing the situation, including listing all the unknowns that still remain.

Note: NASA is repurposing for this mission the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) module originally built for Lunar Gateway, and which SpaceX was awarded the contract to launch using Falcon Heavy. This suggests this SpaceX’s contract will be transferred to SkyFall.

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